Opinion

Thursday, 4 February 2016

They say social media is a stress buster but Rakesh, a social media
fanatic, may not fully agree with this.In his quest for fame, Rakesh has been sharing his thoughtful portraits
on various social networking platforms for the past few years but the demanding
process of producing those photographs has landed him in the hospital with a
stiff neck.

The incident happened yesterday after Rakesh repeatedly posed for the
camera in his signature posture, looking at the distant sky, when suddenly his
neck got stuck sideways and he was unable to turn it back to normal anatomical
position.

When his friends realized he was staring blankly at the sky for no
apparent reason for an hour, they rushed him to the hospital where he was
diagnosed with a sprained neck.

We visited him in the hospital and he greeted us warmly with his gaze
fixed at the ceiling.“See, competition
is very tough on social media.You have
to constantly prove that you are better than the rest in order to get likes and
shares, because, as they say, it’s not important what is said, what matters is
who is saying it,” he looked at us to see approval in our eyes, holding a
posture reminiscent of Paul Adams in his final delivery stride, before turning
his gaze back to ceiling as he continued, “Your bio holds the key on social
media.But at the same time you cannot
just talk the talk, you must walk the walk as well.For example, if your bio reads, ‘I am a
biker,’ then you should, ideally, post 3-4 pictures of your bike every day, or
at least, pictures of your helmet if you don’t own a bike.And, as a biker, the ultimate purpose of your
life is to get yourself photographed on the foothills of Himalayas with 3 biker
friends, and that’s when you achieve Moksha.”

“But things are slightly different for me because I am not a biker, I
am a thinker as mentioned on my bio.And
it’s difficult to get myself clicked when I am actually thinking, so I have to
reconstruct the whole process of thinking later when someone, preferably a
known person, is holding a camera in close proximity.I am sure, my current inactive status on
social media is giving my followers an impression that I have stopped
thinking.”

“But now that the doctors have asked you to be careful with your neck
movement for the next few months, how would you portray your thought process on
social media?” we inquired.

“Photoshop.I have to find the
person who photoshops Narendra Modi’s pictures.The one in which he is conducting aerial survey of Chennai was an
amazing work of art. Until then I will
be sharing photographs of trees, clouds, birds, or anything that signifies
imagination…I mean, anything that’s not on the ground,” he concluded.